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Honkai: Star Rail charges for pre-downloads for its PS5 October release

Loco motive.

picture of current and upcoming characters from honkai star rail including the main character, kafka, and imbibitor lunae
Image credit: Eurogamer/HoYoverse
Jessica Orr avatar
News by Jessica Orr Senior Guides Writer
Published on
12 comments

As revealed in PlayStation's recent State of Play, Honkai: Star Rail is coming to PS5 on 11th October, 2023.

Developed by HoYoverse, the company behind Genshin Impact, Star Rail is an anime-styled turn-based RPG with a gacha system, and has already been in the hands of PC and mobile players for five months.

Watch on YouTube
Version 2.2 Trailer - "Then Wake to Weep" | Honkai: Star Rail.

While Star Rail is a free download, you can purchase its PS5 "pre-order" bundle for £9.49 to get some in-game items when it releases, and the ability to pre-download the game on PS5. But these in-game items are fairly unhelpful in the grand scheme of getting and building characters, especially when compared to its battle pass, the "Nameless Honor", which upgrades its free track to premium for £9.99 and offers far more helpful materials and weapons.

Even the free PS5 pre-registration rewards are more helpful, giving out a weapon if one million people pre-register their interest for Star Rail.

pictures with text of the ps5 pre order items including 2 star passes and food items
Those Star Rail Passes are what you use to try and get more characters. It takes 180 to guarantee the 5-Star character you want. This bundle gives you two. | Image credit: HoYoverse

With such underwhelming rewards, the ability to pre-download seems to be the main appeal of this PS5 pre-order bundle, something that has been free to do for every Star Rail patch released so far, including its initial release on PC and mobile devices.

Although this pre-order bundle is laughable, I find the humour in the actual game a lot more appealing, which you can read about in my Honkai: Star Rail review.

If you're interested in playing Star Rail when it comes to the PS5, you can also keep up with who the current and next characters are in our Banner schedule.

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